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The Conversion Bureau (Original)
[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/03/story-conversion-bureau.html The Conversion Bureau] is an unfinished story by Blaze that served as the genesis of the larger Conversion Bureau genre. Summary The ponies and the humans have lived together in harmony for centuries. Equestria is an island inhabited entirely by ponies, and some have branched off to live with humans. However, the humans, seeing their bleak world and accepting that they have made too many mistakes in their world to fix, have decided to open facilities to convert humans into ponies and live in the peaceful utopia of Equestria. Reception The original Conversion Bureau story has been widely regarded as both badly written and full of unfortunate implications. Many of the spin-offs were created in an attempt to either "fix" the premise and present a more balanced viewpoint, or to create better-written stories based on what was seen as an intriguing but poorly executed concept. At its height, the Conversion Bureau community sported one of the largest groups on FIMFiction and constantly attracted new authors. However, it also spawned a large number of vocal detractors who criticized many of the stories for being misanthropic and portraying the ponies as overly perfect and Equestria as being too idyllic a society (while ignoring the many dangerous creatures known to reside there, as well as the fact that the series has many antagonistic ponies as well). As a whole, TCB is considered one the biggest "base breakers" of the the MLP fanfiction community. Either one loves it or hates it, with very few claiming a middle ground on the issue. Blaze Blaze, at the time of this interview, lived in New Jersey. Whether or not he's changed residencies since then is unknown. Motives Originally, he was inspired to write The Conversion Bureau out of a strong desire to visit the world of Equestria for himself, which got him interested in the 'human in Equestria' type of stories. During a period of self proclaimed "extreme obsession", he attempted to write one for himself. He never expected it to get as popular - or infamous - as it did. His stated goal was to create a simple story of humans going to Equestria and back, while drawing comparisons between the two worlds. He also said he read stories about how Equestria was actually a post-apocalyptic Earth set in the far future and wanted to create a less “grimdark” explanation as to why there were no humans in MLP, although this statement would be seen by many as darkly ironic in retrospect given the unfortunate implications he never intended to convey. Criticism and Response Blaze appears to agree with the general consensus that the original Conversion Bureau story is poorly written. He acknowledges that while he had an interesting premise, his skills at executing said premise were lacking. In his opinion, the spin-offs are much better than his own work. This, along with the backlash he received from the story, are what led him to cease working on the original fanfiction. As it stands, he has no plans to finish the story, regarding it as a poorly written "old shame". Despite popular claims, he refutes the idea that he is a misanthrope. However, he does seem to harbor an unusually strong admiration for ponies, referring to the world of Equestria as a "heavenly paradise". While he probably doesn't actually hate humans, he's likely disillusioned with society at large, using ponies as a form of escapism. Supporting this notion is the fact that the Earth is written as bleak dystopia, and that humans are hardly ever portrayed in a positive manner. Additionally, the story carries heavy implications of ponies being inherently morally superior for the sole reason that they are ponies.Category:Story